It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: Solidarity in the Courts—Judicial Justification for Posthumous Use of Sperm by Bereaved Parents

Abstract

Abstract The practice of posthumous use of sperm raises social, ethical, and legal questions. We examine the issue of who should be allowed to use the sperm—only the deceased’s spouse or the deceased’s parents as well—from the perspective of solidarity and relational autonomy. Following a theoretical discussion of various accounts of solidarity and relational autonomy, the legal status of posthumous assisted reproduction is examined in three jurisdictions—the USA, Australia, and Israel—in which most applications to the courts were submitted by the deceased’s parents. In Israel, we found fifteen court rulings on requests for posthumous use of sperm and fourteen in Australia. A smaller number were found in the case of the USA. The analysis reveals that Israeli and Australian courts employ solidarity-based arguments to justify their decisions to allow posthumous use of sperm, particularly when the deceased’s true wishes are unknown. We thus conclude that the posthumous use of sperm can be legally extended to include the deceased’s parents based on solidarity and relational autonomy arguments.